A day in the life.....

My mundane life, and the bizarre things that happen (or don't)

Thursday, April 01, 2004

Fuckwit!

Well, had an interesting meeting with my boss this afternoon. Started off okay - discussing my contract and what is going to happen going forwards. He 'announced' that with the new big big boss making such sweeping changes, I had to be prepared for there not even being an auths team in 6 months, and being moved onto something else. He is so fucking naive to be shocked to hear me say I had figured that out already, and in fact the auths team had been discussing it only that morning.

Various things were discussed, basically resulting in 'because the big big boss might not like this project, we are just going to forget it and do something else instead'. There is not even an attempt to think 'let's see if we can make him realise how good this is' - such a defeatist attitude.

Then came his 'helpful hint'.

Before the six month review, these new projects were a chance for me to demonstrate my 'good' behaviours (one of the buzzwords of the company), and that being averse to change is not a good thing.

Excuse me.

Averse to change???

I am the least averse to change person I know. I am happy to up sticks and move countries to do a new job, and if it doesn't work out just as happy to move back to a new job in a place I have never worked before. I pointed out that what I am averse to is bad communication of any change. I pointed out that there had been bad communication between me, him and his boss, with obvious misunderstandings on what was going to happen and what was expected. Only apparently not. "There has been nothing wrong with the communication". Yeah right. Just like there doesn't appear to be right now either.

I started asking him to be more specific, as he obviously was making a point about 'negative behaviours'. He shrugged. I said this was not good enough. He then started bullshitting about asking too many questions, causing problems by not just dealing with the change. He said when there was change there were 2 options - 1 to complain about it, and 2 to get on with it. I pointed out that how could he completely dismiss someone complaining, yet going on to do a great job. Just because you are not happy, and mention, will not make a difference to how you do the job. I also pointed out that it was actually good to ask questions and challenge, than to actively encourage a 'yours is not to reason why' culture.

He actually said this. He actually said this three times.

"You must tow the company line".

I laughed in his face. I said I would never tow any company line, and I did not believe the company I worked for now wanted those sorts of people. I pointed out when people ask questions, that in itself does not cause trouble. What could lead to trouble was these questions not being answered, and not even being considered. It was when these questions come up against a brick wall that problems start, and to say that is the fault of the questioner is foolish.

He once again just shrugged his shoulders.

I said, "I guess that's my brick wall then isn't it".

I think I may be looking for another job because I have been sacked, rather than walking out.